Excuse Me But I Am Not On The Menu
by sleepy-emo
Summary: When Fakir goes to meet Duck and finds no Duck but the leaflet for an All You Can Eat Chinese Takeaway...well let's just say he's less than pleased and goes to rescue her. Post anime.


**Ok so I recently watched Princess Tutu and really was NOT happy with the ending! So I decided to write my own...as a drabble...that I did when I was taking a break from unpacking my stuff into my new place. Anyway hope you like it, writing it made me feel better for the ending of the anime so there we go.**

Duck lay immersed in the swiftly warming water, steam preventing her from seeing even a few centimetres in front of her face, unable to do anything but wonder how on earth she was going to get out of this one.

Duck had been floating in the lake on the edge of the water, waiting for Fakir to turn up as he always did in the late afternoon. Ever since they had defeated The Raven and she had turned back into a duck Fakir had promised her that he would come and sit with her every afternoon for a couple of hours; he would write and she would just swim around and watch him. Sometimes he would read her the things he had written and sometimes the two of them would just sit in silence, enjoying each other's company. As long as they could spend time together the two of them were happy.

That particular afternoon Fakir had been late, which annoyed Duck greatly (if the weather wasn't fantastic Fakir did have a tendency to be late). Duck had waddled out onto land and up to the road to look for him when she heard the screeching of tires as a car stopped just behind her. The next thing she knew everything had gone dark as she found herself scooped up into a large bag and flung in the back of a car and driven away from the lake as two men babbled happily in Chinese the entire drive.

"Oh no!" Duck thought as the car hit a bump in the road and the bag she was in was flung into the air before crashing back down, leaving her flat on her face. "How am I going to get out of this?"

"Duck!" Fakir called as he ran down the path to the lake. "I'm sorry I'm late; Mr Cat's replacement made me straighten up the room after class again." He stopped as he reached the lake, his eyes scanning the water for a sigh of his yellow feathered friend. "Duck! Where are you?" he called again, hoping she wasn't so annoyed that he was late she had decided to just leave and not see him. Fakir began searching the grass, just in case Duck was hiding – purposefully trying to make him sweat – but he found no sign of her.

For half an hour Fakir search the lake for any sign of Duck but to no avail. He sighed and made his way back to the road, evidently he had been late one too many times and Duck didn't want to see him today. As he vowed to be early and surprise her tomorrow a brightly coloured piece of paper caught in the fence posts caught his attention. He went over to the fence, plucked it out of the wood and inspected it. It was the leaflet for a new restaurant in town, whose grand opening was that night.

'Golden Palace Chinese Restaurant Grand Opening,' the leaflet said. 'All You Can Eat Buffet Plus Win An Extra Specially Prepared Duck!' Fakir read the leaflet and his eyes widened as something in his mind clicked into place. He crumpled the leaflet as he clenched his palm and tore off in the direction of town hoping against hope that he wasn't already too late.

There was every likelihood that Duck was just hiding somewhere at the lake, ignoring him because she was annoyed, but he couldn't take that chance. If the 'extra specially prepared duck' advertised was his Duck then he would have to hurry up and save her before she ended up on someone's plate!

Duck blinked fiercely and shook her head trying to keep herself from falling unconscious. The heat and steam were getting to her and she could barely keep her eyes open. Sweat was running down her neck and her feathers were sticking to her but she couldn't move due to the ropes holding her. As she could no longer turn into Princess Tutu and save herself all she could do was close her eyes and pray that Fakir would come and save her soon.

A crash and an angry Chinese shout made Duck look up, suddenly alert. Through the steam she managed to make out three hazy shapes; two were about the same height and trying to detain the third who seemed to be trying to make their way towards the pot she was in. Over the crashing and Chinese babbles she could have sworn she heard a familiar voice calling out to her again and again. She blinked through the steam and as she heard the voice call out again she began to recognise the third blurry shape.

"Duck!" Fakir's voice cried and as soon as it reached her ears Duck instantly became alert and awake.

"Fakir!" she called back although it came out as a strangled quack. She struggled against the ropes holding her as Fakir struggled against the men holding him, both desperately trying to get to the other.

"Duck!" Fakir shouted again as he managed to shake off the hold of one of the men and push him aside before pushing the other aside. He ran over to her and, without thinking or stopping to untie her bonds, Fakir grabbed the pot Duck was in. Casting a quick glance over his shoulder at the restaurant owners Fakir heaved the pot off the stove and ran, as fast as he could, out of back door of the Golden Palace's kitchen.

Fakir ran out of the town and down to the lake with the pot containing Duck, not stopping until he reached the secluded trees that circled the water. Once he was satisfied that the two men from the restaurant hadn't followed them he placed the pot on the ground and lifted Duck out of it. He placed her on the grass and began undoing the ropes binding her.

"I'm so sorry Duck." he said sadly as he stroked her head once the ropes had fallen away. She looked up at him, her eyes huge. "I should have been on time, then this wouldn't have happened."

"Quack quack quack." Duck said trying to sound as reassuring as she could. Fakir smiled down at her, wishing he could understand her. As much as he insisted that he was happy with the way things were between them, he missed Duck the girl. He missed her clumsiness, her inability to do even the simplest things without falling over and most of all he missed her sweetness. He wanted to hear her chattering away to him again; telling him to be a nicer person and just being her innocent, wonderful self. He picked her up and pressed her to his chest, hugging her as tightly as her little body would allow.

"I love you Duck." Fakir whispered then pressed a soft kiss to her feathery forehead. As he held her Duck's body warmed in his hands and a strange white light surrounded her. Fakir let go of Duck's little frame as the light got even brighter and he raised a hand to shield his eyes. Fakir stared in confusion, his brow furrowed, as the light faded and he was met with a shock of ginger hair as Duck raised her head and stared up at him with huge eyes.

"Fakir," she said quietly. "what happened?"

"I don't know." he whispered back.

"One minute I was a duck and then all of a sudden I'm a..." Duck tailed off looking down at herself before letting out a loud quack of surprised when she realised that she wasn't wearing anything and desperately tried to cover herself. Her quack had alerted Fakir to her state of undress and he blushed profusely and looked away. While still keeping his eyes away he shrugged out of his coat and handed it to her.

"Here," he said a little shyly. "take this, we can find you some clothes in town."

"Sure." Duck smiled, pulling the coat on and shakily got to her feet. She stumbled slightly and Fakir jumped to catch her. Duck clung to his shirt as she tried to regain her balance and looked up into Fakir's eyes. "Um Fakir…" she began as he gazed back at her.

"I thought I'd lost you again." he told her.

"But you didn't and I'm ok now." she smiled giving him a small squeeze. Fakir smiled at her as he reached up and cupped her chin. He tilted her head upwards and pressed his lips against hers. Duck felt her knees weaken as she clung to the front of Fakir's shirt and he held her like he would never let her go. Once he pulled away he looked deep into her eyes.

"I love you Duck." he told her. Duck smiled up at him.

"I love you too Fakir." she replied. Neither Duck of Fakir knew how it had happened and neither of them were going to question in but Fakir's and his kiss had turned Duck back into her old self. Fakir kissed her softly again, now that she was his Duck again he would do everything in his power to keep her that way and let her know how much he loved her every single day.

**I just wanted her to turn back into a girl and Fakir to confess his love for her! I fell better now haha hope you enjoyed reading it, especially if you were as disappointed with the ending to the anime as much as I was. S-E xxx**


End file.
